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Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Glenurquhart Rd caving in to Nairnshire separatist pressure? - A local democratic experiment? Devo max for Nairnshire coming up if it works out?

We've just been browsing a paper that is going before the full Highland Council tomorrow, it's called "Strengthening Local Democracy" and we've extracted a few bits for serious students of the Nairn's democratic deficit when it comes to matters of what is effectively Glenurquhart Road rule.

"Summary. This paper sets out proposals for strengthening local democracy, affecting current
Area Committees in some areas initially and in creating new arrangements for local
community planning. These need further discussion with partners; although there
are changes that can be made to localise Council decision-making should Members
agree. The new arrangements proposed would evolve over time, be experimental
and should support the implementation of the new legal duties arising from the
Community Empowerment Act"

"2.2 Where the first local democratic experiments could be
Based on discussions with Members locally, the areas seeking most change at
this time to local democracy and to experiment locally are: Caithness;
Sutherland; Nairn; and Badenoch and Strathspey."

"2.8 While the vision for each area clearly sets out what Members seek to achieve,
progressing with this requires collaboration from partners. Ideally local
conversations between local Members and the local partners should take
place. These would be around the vision statement, how partners can
participate and how in practice they could take this forward locally. The result
should be:

• agreement of which organisations would be involved locally and who
would represent them;

• any amendments to the vision;

• local proposals on how to organise the deliberation and governance
around the vision."

From 2:17 of the document:

"2. It is proposed that we create separate local forums for local governance
in each of the four areas. The title can be decided and if preferred
consulted on locally. Nairn Members previously proposed a ‘Nairn
Community Partnership’ for example. Using ‘Area Committee’ may
deter partners and communities from participating."

"2.21 When they could start
We should seek to start the new ‘Local Forums’ as soon as local Members and
partners can agree and ideally during 2015. It may require the Council to
begin the formal part of the ‘Local Forums’ in advance of the partnership
agenda if partners engagement takes longer to arrange. New devolved
Council budgets would take effect from 1.4.16."

From 5 Recommendations:

"5.3 Members are asked to agree that to localise decision-making that:
1. We disband the two Area Committees covering Caithness and Sutherland and
Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey as soon as practicable and establish new
forums for local community planning that serve each of the four areas
separately as set out in paragraph 2.17. These would engage with relevant
local partners (pending their agreement) and offer better ways of engaging local
community bodies and individuals and help implement the Community
Empowerment Act. Council business (decision-making and scrutiny) would be
considered separately in these forums. The Scheme of Delegation is amended
accordingly."

Any thoughts out there in Gurnshire? Could a "Nairn Community Partnership" tomorrow become a "Nairn District Council" a year or two down the line? Time for the Nairnshire Liberation Front and the People's Front for the Liberation of Nairnshire to stand down?

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

We need local government reorganisation. There are some services that might be better centralised - but many could and should be planned, managed and/or procured and delivered locally. Anything short of an actual directly-elected Council is a compromise. The area committee was a step in the right direction and this development is a further step. But - like Oliver - we want (need and deserve) more!A couple of years is in my view out of the question. But keep the pressure up on Holyrood and on CoSLA is my recommendation. Other countries still have "local" government - and so do parts of Scotland. Highland doesn't. Sadly we were sold short by Westminster's Tories and the very eloquent Peter Peacock. I believe he recognises the folly. There are growing numbers of policy makers at Glenurquart Road and in Edinburgh who recognise the democratic deficit - but they need people at every opportunity to make and strengthen the case.http://www.localdemocracy.info/discuss/Colin